Bed of Roses
by rumpleswagskin
Summary: Ted doesn't retreat to his room after the events of Tick Tick Tick. Instead, he consoles a heartbroken Barney Stinson about the one that got away... B/R!


**Oh my God **_**Tick Tick Tick**_** was both my favourite and my least favourite episode of HIMYM ever. Just… guh. **

**Disclaimer: I *sniff* do not own How I Met Your Mother or Barney and Robin. :( Borrowed them, then put them back emotionally unstable, but calmer.**

_"…Barney?"_ Ted questions, his mouth popping open slightly. The blonde man jumps visibly and whirls around. His eyes widen and his grip on the white bag of petals slackens a little.

"Teddy boy," he laughs nervously. "You're still a bit up in the air from those sandwiches, huh?" He pulls a fake sympathetic expression. "You should know I'm not really here. Just go to bed."

Ted shakes his head.

"No… I'm fine. I can _see_ you." Ted's tone is one of sheer disbelief. "In… in Robin's room…" He takes a quick look around at the remaining rose petals and candles. Barney gulps, watching the cogs turn in his head. And then, his friend's eyes light up with recognition. That's a light bulb moment if he's ever seen one.

"Ted, really you should get some sleep. It's been a crazy night." He can say that again. Even now, the man is fighting back the tears from his baby blue eyes. Barney can't even begin to describe how he feels right at that moment. He should be upset, betrayed, _furious_ even. But he can't bring himself to be. Instead a low, hollow ache thuds where his heart should be. His stomach churns ferociously, like he is about to be sick. But he knows he can't, because he's already thrown up its entire contents, the bile mixing with his tears on the bathroom floor.

He can't bring himself to be angry right now. He is empty, hopeless.

But Ted is still staring at him.

"You broke up with Nora… for Robin," he says, blinking in shock. "You're in love with her again."

Barney laughs that horrible, choking laugh that comes with the tears he is swallowing. The lump in his throat aches with the restraint.

"I never stopped," he says quietly. "Loving her, that is." He shakes his head, with the ghost of a smile on his face.

Ted swallows, not knowing what to do with his broken friend.

At that moment, Barney's knees give way and he sinks onto the bed in defeat, his head in his hands. Ted sits carefully next to him, clapping a hand to his back in reassurance.

"She loves you, you know?" he says softly. "I know she does. I can see it. She's just… scared. Kevin's the safe option right now and she's not in a good place to be taking chances."

_The restaurant glows in soft yellow light and he leans against the bar with a smile. She really is radiant… why has he not ever fully noticed before?_

_ "To taking chances," he says, raising his drink._

_ "To taking chances," she echoes, clinking her glass to his with that smile that makes his heart stop._

Barney shakes his head out of the flashback, noticing he has the faintest trace of a smile tugging at his lips. That was the day he had first told Lily about his feelings for Robin. She'd set up that date for them.

Then his nostalgia fades. Now is not the time to be reminiscing. It would only make the rejection sting more, like rubbing salt into an open wound.

"You do know that she loves you, right?"

Barney lifts his head from his hands to look at his friend, and Ted is taken aback by the glistening tears in his eyes.

"I don't know anything anymore, Ted," he shakes his head hopelessly. "I thought she did. I thought she still wondered… still hoped, still dreamt. Maybe. Like I did."

Ted can see the man's heart breaking on his face, and the agony rips through him like a knife. He's known that pain before… from Victoria, from Stella, from Zoey. But for some reason, none of them seem like they compare to the destruction that Barney is suffering right now.

This time, Ted carefully places his arm around his friend's shoulder. The gesture is foreign, and new to them, but he feels like Barney needs it.

"She'll come round. It's just gonna take some time, man. Just let her be with Kevin for a while, until she realizes he's not the one she wants."

All of a sudden, a flood of images fly through Barney's brain. Kevin holding her, Kevin touching her, his fingers tracing that adorable dimple she has in her back, his lips on that special place behind her left ear that makes her sigh and grip his skin harder, her fingernails digging into his back.

His stomach turns and rolls like a stormy ocean. She isn't supposed to be with Kevin, she's supposed to be with _him_. He knows exactly what she likes, he knows all her secret spots and desires and everything that goes with them. She doesn't realize how much attention he paid to her when they were together—more than he ever had with anybody else. Just because he wanted her to be satisfied, to be _happy_.

Only now it isn't with him.

They're silent for a while, as Barney allows one tear to escape before swallowing the lump in his throat again. All of a sudden, he speaks.

"You know how you're always talking about The One? How she's perfect for you and you just _know_ when because when you see her, your day magically gets better… and when she laughs you just wanna sing, and when she's upset, your whole world falls apart?"

Ted just nods, incapable of speech at this point.

"She's my One, Ted. It's her. It's always been her. And it'll never be anyone but _her._" Barney's voice shudders and more tears break loose before Ted brings him into a hug, his heart aching for his friend.

And at the door stands someone else crying, only this person is female and has brown curly hair.

Robin Scherbatsky wipes the tears staining her face on the sleeve of her jacket, her mascara leaving black smudges on the fabric. She'd just witnessed the destruction of Barney Stinson. The breaking of the unbreakable. And she had caused it.

Looking at the man, she feels her heart ache uncontrollably, and suddenly she knows.

The affection she feels towards Kevin is nothing against the irrevocable pull she feels towards Barney. He's her soul mate. And she's just broken his heart.

_What the hell have I done?_

**:(**

**I hope you all liked it. It'd really be amazing if you could leave a review on the way out 3**


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